10. Istanbul to Amman

We woke up to a wet rainy Istanbul day, we have had sunshine following us since we arrived, so as Mum said “it is time to leave!” Our Royal Jordanian flight is confirmed which is good because yesterday some planes were cancelled. Mum heard on the BBC that the Turkish government was determined to open the airport very quickly after the horribly sad suicide bombing to show that Turkey would not be beaten by ISIS / IS / ISIL (I hadn’t heard of the ISIL name before, it means Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). 

The good news is that Instagram is back on, and later this morning Facebook was too! The Turkish government blocked social media 3 hours after the bombing because people were posting footage of the attack, but another viewpoint is that the government didn’t want people criticising them. 41 people have died. The terrorists were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Krygyzstan and were an ISIS cell who entered Turkey on 25 May and stayed in Istanbul quite near our hotel. I’d never heard of Krygyzstan but now know it got independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and is a small land-locked country with Kazakhstan north, Uzbekistan west, Tajikistan south west and China east.

All the flags around Istanbul are at half mast, and people are quiet but also being so lovely to each other. We saw it a few times, no pushing in at the airport, people smiling at each other and being gentle with each other.

The tourism industry was having a hard time since the March bomb, it’s been so quiet for us – there was hardly anyone in the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sophia, and we were alone at Lone Pine, and all the cemeteries and ANZACs landing points, trenches, ridge points etc. But now after this third ISIS bomb this year and the threats still coming that attacks will happen in Ramadan; it’s going to be so bad for the tourism economy and all the workers and businesses in the tourism industry. The lovely manager at Albinas Hotel in Istanbul was so sad and almost helpless when he told us that he had 5 cancellations yesterday for next week, and they only have 15 rooms.

We left the hotel at 11am for the airport because we were told we needed to get there extra early. We checked in at 11.45am, after going through two security scanners (there was SO much media outside the departures terminal), BUT there was a problem with our ticket because Mum bought it on credit card. Even though she showed them it was HER credit card, they couldn’t give us a boarding pass because, for extra security reasons, no passengers who booked with credit cards could go through unless they are checked. Mum doesn’t know what they checked, but after 45 minutes we got our boarding pass. I just sat and waited on the floor.

We then had 3 hours to fill in. The airport has been cleaned up, although there's a whole section which is barricaded off where the suicide bombers detonated themselves. As we were waiting in line at passport control I noticed some glass that hadn't been replaced with gun shot holes.  It was the exact place where the suicide bombers were randomly shooting. 

We're not going to tell Binky that a gorgeous little Maltese dog wearing the same red collar as Binky was in the duty free shop, with his OWN boarding pass. I forgot dogs under 4kg are allowed to travel with their owners in planes in Europe. However, Mum pointed out that Binky couldn't come with us now, IF we lived in Europe because she's got a bit chunkier since she came back to Sydney (she's put on a kg). I tell Bink she's not to worry, that she's just got big bones!

Finally it's time to go to the boarding gate - down to a bus. Mum said she knows what that means, and she was right! After an hour & a half waiting at the gate, the bus took us to a tiny plane, a type Mum hadn't heard of before called Embracer 175. 

 

After another hour on the runway (the captain said Istanbul had congestion) we took off over Istanbul 
and took this flight path, missing Syria we flew over a bit of Lebanon and Israel and saw the Sea of Galilee. 


It was so interesting seeing the Jordanian passengers on the plane, we seemed to be the only tourists. They were so generous and lovely to each other and wow, they dressed so well. Both the men and the women take pride in their dress, even the ladies in their hijabs, scarves and flowy dresses. Mum and I felt so grotty so we won't wear our hiking pants and boots tomorrow!


We landed into Queen Alia airport 2 hours late, after seeing a LOT of desert. I now know why the plane windows were so red-dusty!

I was surprised that even going into the hotel we had to have everything  x-ray scanned (and even if we go out and come back in again). Mum said Jordan is very aware of the country's safety and security so it does everything possible to keep it a safe oasis in a region of wars. 

A quarter of Jordan's population now are Syrian refugees!

We went to a small family-run restaurant for dinner across the road from the hotel : Lentil soup (so yummy) and fish. Mum's trying to work out the coins! She knows JD and has some to use (JD=Jordanian Dinar), but when the SIM card man, the mini-mart man and the restaurant wanted JD plus either qirsh, piastres, 1/4 or 1/4 dinar ... or when dinner costs JD16.700, Mum kept giving them notes. She already has about 40 different coins. She guesses they're the qirsh, piastres, 1/4 or 1/2! It's going to my job to find out tomorrow, I am told!